Jidaishii
by slipknotandtool
Summary: A boy who finds out how to bend reality itself. This story is a genre of its own and if you're into dark, horrish, yet mysterious stories, then you should enter the dark world of Jidaishii.
1. Introduction

Introduction

My name is Masato Suzuki. I was a Japanese student attending a high school named Meiya high in Kyoto, Japan. My story is unlike any other that you have heard before. I am life and I am death, I am the border of all creation and existence. My role on this planet is more than your mortal minds can bear. I am the very being of fear, and the very scream you here when a person is murdered in cold blood, and then I am light and hope, and can heal your every troubles and pain. The story that I am about to unravel is not fiction, nor fantasy. In my world, everything is possible. The word "impossible" is irrelevant in this story, so if your mind is based on logic, I'd stop reading right here. Some of you may not believe what I have to say, others of you will. You'll have to keep reading to find out.

I'll try to break down this little story of mine as best as I can. The information I have to offer may not be understanding to you. The world, which we live on, has four explicit realms, Oblivion, Dream, Nightmare, and Reality. Without just one of these realms the planet would be corrupt and out of shape. Without Oblivion, there would be nowhere to go if we died. Without Dream, our minds would go insane and quickly our minds would disintegrate. Without Nightmare, we would have no fear; therefore we wouldn't be cautious and would just do anything. And foremost, without Reality, our entire planet would be in utter chaos. Take just one of these away, and our very saneness would be no more. I am the key to all of these; I can tamper and manipulate any one of the realms that I please. It was left into my hands for this responsibility.

That was the hard part to understand, things are kind of downhill from here. There are two main priorities to existence, life, and death. Without this balance to separate us, the living and the dead could collide and create a whole new species. Here to hold the balance, are two species. You may know these creatures by the names of "Angels" and "Demons" or even "Devils." Though these creatures have the same characteristics as your fictional characters, they're not quite the same. "Angels" or as the "truth holders" call them: Jimishii, are life. They're pure, and give happiness to mother's, holding their first-born child, and they're also the key to all creation. They create and give life. And "demons", or Daimashii, are death, and give suffering to the ill, and pain to the old. Both of these creatures are very important, and they both have limited powers on a realm; Jimishii control Dream, and Daimashii control Oblivion. Is your mind hurting yet? I hope not, because there's still a way to go before I can start my story.

More for your mind to try to hold is the four revolving elements. Elementals control these. Four creatures have the ability to control one assigned element, but they have to go through a Desohu, or, in brief translation, somewhat like a court-session. In this court session one species of an element will decide what kind of weather your mortals on earth will be having. There are four elements, as I said before: fire, water, wind, and earth. A more scientific term that will be used more in the story is Nera, Bedo, Rashi, and Hema. The elemental that controls fire, or Nera, is fairies, or more accurate, Gashi. The elemental that controls Bedo are mermaids, or Kenawa. The elemental that controls Rashi are elves, or Huyai. And last but not least the elemental that controls Hema are trolls, or to be more precise, Buje. Don't worry about trying to remember all the names, the names will be translated throughout the story, I know how your mortal minds can drift off sometimes. But ah, you thought I was done, didn't you? No, not quite. I still have a while ago. For, if you weren't reading this introduction then, you would have no clue what was going on in the story still to come.

The last part is the most important part, so keep focus on this last one. The last is emotions. Hate, Love, Hope, Pain, Doubt, these are all emotions. If we did not have emotions, obviously, we would be _emotionless_, without emotions we would not have personality. If you merge every single thing that I have told you about so far, you get a passageway called Jidaishii. The first hybrid: Jidaishii, was me…


	2. Forward

Forward 

I went to high school like any other Japanese student attending Meiya high. My life was great, it was my sophomore year in high school and I had many friends that I could count on. I studied daily for hard tests, and I looked forward to college. But this wasn't my only role on this planet. My mom was dying from a heart disease and we weren't that wealthy. The only way my father and I could save her was to save up to about sixty thousand dollars in American money. My mother was a down to earth kind of person and she always put others in front of herself, so she really didn't mind having the disease, but my father and I couldn't stand her lying in bed with agony in her face. But I tried as hard as I could to do what my mother wanted me to, not worry about her and study for school. School in Japan was a big priority, and bad grades weren't acceptable, even for a boy whose mother was dying.

3:00 AM, that's the time on the clock as I peel my eyes open. I still only had gotten a few hours of sleep. I switched on my light and got off the floor that I was sleeping on and grabbed one of my textbooks. I had fallen asleep yet again during studying. I hadn't even got around to studying science. This was the normal life of a Japanese schoolboy, as I was. Even though I had studied so hard for each test, studying never really got me anywhere. I was more interested in secrets. Secrets held by authority, reality, logic. I didn't believe what parent's said, that fantasy is just fantasy and can only go as far as the boundary has between a fantasy book and the real world. If there were such thing as fantasy then I would be the first to discover the secrets. I'd never believe the "truth." But I set those ideas aside for today and closed my book once more. I laid back down on the cold surface of my wooden floor that was covered up by a bamboo Tatami mat which us Japanese folk slept on. One hour, two hours, three hours, four, the hours passed by as I slept and woke up at 7:00 AM. The buzzer of my alarm clock sounded and I drifted up to the morning smell of dew on the grass. Was this heaven? No, most certainly not, I was not truly awake, my eyes were half open, the birds chirped, and the sun's rays beamed in through my window. Certainly not heaven, it was a redundant life for a Japanese student. I sighed and slipped on some clothes. I made myself some breakfast and then packed my lunch for school's meal. I ran off onto the sidewalk outside my house and chased off to school, my jet-black hair moving along with me as I ran. No, most certainly not heaven, maybe hell, but it didn't matter. My textbooks were waiting, and my teacher's were probably becoming impatient with me to score a perfect grade.

Before I walked into Meiya high I slipped off my shoes and slipped the other ones that the school had provided for us. This was respect to the school, and most traditional. I walked up the stairs to my classroom and greeted my other friends that were more nervous that I was about today's test. We all sat down at our assigned seats and took out our pens.

"Okay class, as you all know you all will be assigned two tests today; one in math, and one in science. These tests will be highly graded, so I assume all of you studied hard for this. I will hand the class paper and when I say so, you all will begin," announced Watanabe-Sensei.

Watanabe-Sensei walked around the room and handed everyone a sheet of paper that had questions on it. The math test consisted of thirty questions and the science consisted of fifteen.

"Begin."

The test had begun. Sweat was dripping from my pours, I could hardly take this; this test depended on everything, and if I didn't do a good job, then my mom would be disappointed, and even worse, my dad would feel even more ashamed. The anticipation lead me further; I was on question fifteen on the math test. I hadn't guessed on any question yet, that was pretty good for me. Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, I was almost finished, just a little more ways to go. I was up to question twenty-one when I saw out of the corner of my eye someone looking on my paper. Immediately I raised my hand.

"Yes, Suzuki?" Watanabe-Sensei questioned.

"Can you come here for a minute, Watanabe-Sensei?" I replied.

He nodded his head, walked up to me, and asked me what I had wanted. I had whispered in his ear that the boy sitting next to me was looking on my paper. He gave me a short stare, and then turned around to the other student.

"Yokuya-kun, can I talk to you for a minute outside?"

Everyone knew that Yokuya's parents were wealthy, and got him whatever he wanted. Yokuya was a plump kid, always wore green, and short black, gelled hair. He had a big nose and a chubby face. He was the school bully, and had his own gang. No one liked him, not even me, and that's saying a lot.

Yokuya gave me a dirty look, then stood up and followed Watanabe-Sensei outside of the classroom. I rolled my eyes and got back to my test. I was finally finished, and then Watanabe-Sensei came back into the class without Yokuya following him.

"Okay class, time's up. Come to the front of the room and turn in your papers, everyone have a nice day," Watanabe-Sensei announced to the class. Everyone turned in their papers and left the class.

After school while I was walking home, Yokuya stopped me with three of his other friends behind him. The one on the right behind him was named Naoaki, or as his friends called him, Nao. He was a pretty good student, decent grades, just a good student hanging out with the wrong crowd. He was tall and skinny, had buzz-cut hair and only wore the color red. Nao and Yokuya together made it look like Christmas already. The one on the left behind him was Tsuguho. No matter how innocent he looked, he was the worst of the gang, he's the one who persuaded Yokuya to start the gang in the first place, not someone you want to mess with. And last but, least, Wami. A very stupid kid, got bad scores on all of his tests, took no time to study, and he had no honor at all. "You think it's funny? Huh, do you? I could've had a perfect grade, and you know what I have now? A zero! I think it's time my friends and I show you what a zero feels like. Ready boys?" asked Yokuya.

I ran as fast as I could, but they were just too fast. Yokuya swung his hard fist into my jaw. I fell to the pavement heavily and found myself lightheaded. I tried to get back up but the rest of his friends kept kicking me down, harder and harder after each second. Then they stole my school money and ran off. I threw my blue book bag packed with textbooks on the concrete and started punching the ground. As you can see…back then, I had a childlike personality. But things didn't always stay this way.

Blood started dripping from my nose, and my mouth, and my ear, and every other place on my face. I was beat this time, but when Watanabe-Sensei heard about this they would be sure to leave me alone. Unless…when I told, they did it again, and again, and again. Oh well, it wasn't that big of a deal. I walked the rest of the way home cautiously. I wasn't ready to get jumped again. In Japan, especially Kyoto, crime wasn't that big. You could leave your purse out on a table for an hour, come back, and it would still be there. It was just those few who had a bad childhood, or started bullying because they weren't so great in school and were made fun of. Oh well, life is life, hopefully they see one day what a gift it really is.

When I got home, opened the door, and looked my dad in the eye, his face was full of panic.

"What happened Suzuki? Tell me now!" my dad's rage at whoever had beaten me up was growing fast.

"I-I…" my words got lost in my thoughts, and somehow my fear was growing that mom would find out, and have another heart attack.

"Tell me, Suzuki!" dad started shaking me, and I kept my eyes from reaching his, they were far down at the floor.

"A-a kid in my class…named Yokuya," I murmured.

"Yokuya…Yokuya. Wait a minute…I know that kid! His parents and I celebrated Japanese New Year together! I'm going to have a talk with his parents," he replied.

Dad had a baldhead…he was traditional in every way. To have a baldhead meant honor. The top of his head glistered in the artificial light bulb we had right above our doorway.

"Dad…wait," I let out a sudden whisper. "Don't let mom find out…I don't want to risk her having another heart attack." Dad gave me a little smirk and eyed me.

"Don't worry, son." He walked off further into the house; I followed him, but went into the bathroom to clean myself off with some peroxide and gauze. I faintly heard him dialing Yokuya's phone number and my heart started beating faster. I really didn't want to get jumped again, or have the risk of my mom dying on me. I took out the gauze from the medicine cabinet and slowly soaked it in peroxide. I then applied it to my face and wiped off the blood. Next, I put band-aids where my cuts were. I walked out of the bathroom back into the living room and I heard my father calmly talking to Yokuya's father. My dad got angry easily, but he didn't show it by yelling, the words he used expressed his anger. In Japan, to scream and act immature was disrespectful. All of our aspects of life were based on our religion: Buddhism.

I heard dad say "Hai, sayounara," which means "yes, goodbye" in Japanese, and then he hung up. He looked at me for a moment and then said to me softly "Yokuya's mom is going to tell the principal about it and see what goes from there, he won't hurt you again."

I looked at him for a moment and then gave a slight smile, for some reason, when I was around him I felt safe. We all ate dinner that night together. I couldn't help staring at mom. She looked so ill. Her once tan, beautiful Japanese skin was now pale and her eyes were red. Her hair had always looked the same though. Beautiful, thin, and jet black, it ran down to her shoulders and it always shined in the light, as if she were an angel that we saw on American advertising.

I felt a bit sick myself, there was a knot in my stomach because I didn't want mom to be like this. I rinsed off my glass plate with sakura on them and then went to bed. We would be getting our grades back tomorrow, I don't know if I was up for it. Hopefully I scored a high grade.

4


	3. The Silver Bullet and the Red Cytoplasm

Chapter 1: The Silver bullet and the red cytoplasm

The next morning I walked to school, looking back and forth, making sure that Yokuya and his gang wasn't coming to hunt me down for what happened yesterday. "Things will be fine," I told myself. But I wasn't so sure that that was true, maybe I was lying to myself.

I got to school safely, maybe he was expelled from school. That would be a miracle. I slipped off my shoes and then put on the other ones and ran up to class. I sat down quietly, the room was dark, the lights were cut off, but there was one lamp at the front of the classroom that was purposed to light the darkness. Watanabe-Sensei was at the front of the class in his chair, with a look of grief in his eyes and he was rubbing his temples. I was worried…what was going on here?

"Class, as some of you may have heard, four of your classmates have been dismissed from this school. Those of which, were pretty good students, but some of them weren't so good. I'm very sad to announce, that one of our best students: Naoaki Heike received his expulsion letter yesterday for gang violence on school grounds. His friends, Yokuya, Tsuguho, and Wami have also been expelled for gang violence on school grounds. The principal of this school has demanded me to announce our losses and that they will no longer be able to attend Meiya high. Now that that's over with let's get to your test grades," Watanabe-Sensei said softly, but strongly. But, surprisingly, the class wasn't interested in test grades at this moment; they wanted to know what had happened with their friends who had got expelled.

"As I call each of your names, I want you to come to the front of the classroom and receive your test papers with the grade on them. Hori, Reona. Izumi, Emiri. And Tsuchi, Wakiko, please come to the front to get your test papers." The three girls went to the front of the classroom to get their grades. As each of them received their grades, they had smiles on their faces. Most girls in Japan studied harder for tests then boys because boys were more interested in girls then grades. But girls in Japan liked guys with good grades, so to get a girl in Japan, most of the time you had to have good grades. Complicated, so I won't go any further into the dating system, I wasn't that big on girls anyway, a waste of time if you asked me then.

Finally after what seemed like hours of waiting, and a lot of suspense, my name was called. "Suzuki, Masato, come and get your paper." As I walked to the front, Watanabe-Sensei smiled at me slightly and handed my paper to me gently. I grabbed it slowly and looked at it carefully. "Yes!" I screamed…but to myself. I received a perfect grade, a hundred in your American grading system. I sat down slowly, still staring at my paper with a smile on my face. Wait until mom saw, and dad as well, they would be so proud. I stopped smiling, but kept my smile up inside, this was one of the happiest days of my life.

After school I was still staring at my paper as I was walking home, not worried of what Yokuya would do if he had the guts to. Suddenly, my paper was snatched out of my hand and I looked behind me. "Oh god," I said to myself. It was Yokuya. He gave a fake smile to me, and ripped it up and threw it on the ground. "A perfect grade, huh? Won't mom and dad be so proud? That is, if they believed you without the paper," said Yokuya laughing as hard as he could.

"Y-Yokuya…I swear I had nothing to do with you getting expelled. My dad asked who did it to me…I couldn't just lie to him," I said shaking.

"Well, you could have, _and_ you _should_ have. First you get me a zero, if that wasn't bad enough, then you got my friends and I all expelled. You're going to have a hell of a time today," he said as he grabbed my neck, lifted me from my feet and kept walking until my back was against a brick wall. Then, he slammed me into it a few times and dropped me. I fell to my knees, and my back and my neck was aching from him slamming me so hard. I got to my feet slowly as he said, "ready for some more?"

"Please…don't," I begged. "I'll do anything, your homework forever…anything."

"Shut the fuck up, baka," he said strongly. Baka means idiot in Japanese. He kept punching me in the face until I was bloody, and then he kicked me in my stomach so that I fell to the ground again. "Why aren't you fighting back, afraid mommy and daddy will find out?" he said as he spit on my shoes. He then took me by my neck and lifted me back to my feet. It was Yokuya's style to beat up someone on their feet. He may have been a bully, but he did have honor, I gave him that.

I took his punches one by one, my jaw was aching and bruised, I didn't think I'd be able to stand this any longer; he was going to go all the way. He knocked me on the ground one last time. This time, I got up and stared him in the eyes. "Ooh, scary, are you actually going to fight back?" My anger was growing, I swung my fist as hard as I could into his face, this time, he was on the ground, not me. He got onto his feet and grabbed down for his pocket, he was no digging in his dark blue jeans.

"W-what are you doing," I stuttered. I saw the shape forming out of his pants, a silver colored pistol. I started backing up to the wall. "P-please…d-don't do it. I'll do anything." I certainly wasn't ready to die right now. I had my whole life to live, I was grateful for my life, and I wasn't going to let somebody kill me because I got him a bad grade and got him kicked out of school! But…it was too late; I saw my life flashing before my eyes. It seemed so real…my mom, before she was sick, making sushi for dad and I. And my dad, before mom was sick, throwing around the old baseball I got for Japanese New Year. Was this really the end? It certainly couldn't be…no, not heaven, this wasn't heaven.

He pointed the silver pistol towards me, loaded it, and then…BANG. It was like it was slow motion, the bullet from the pistol was spiraling towards me, and I couldn't stop it. The air from behind the pistol was releasing, creating a friction between the earth. This was…this was truly amazing. For a minute, I didn't care about life or death. The science behind it all…it was giving me chills. If life can be taken away…can it be created? No, no, no, without a woman and a man. Could the basis of reality be tampered with just a little, that you could play God? This bullet sure didn't explain anything. Just gave me an idea. Maybe…that day, I was saved, by something, or someone, or possibly it was my own doing, perhaps I released another part of my brain, and was able to manipulate time, space, reality itself.

All of a sudden, everything was normal again; the speed of the bullet was very real, not slow like it was before, coming towards me at amazing speeds. I closed my eyes for a minute, and I opened one eye to see if I was alive. I saw everything in red vision for some reason. I saw Yokuya, he had a red tint to him, and so did everything else…what was going on? And then, I saw the bullet, not two inches from my face, still spinning, but not ever touching me. Yokuya's mouth was dropped and his eyes were big, he didn't know what was going on either. After a while the bullet stopped spinning, gravity had its way with it, and it fell to the ground, making a pen drop noise.

Yokuya started running away, for some reason…he was scared, and so was I. This didn't make sense. I should've been dead. He should've been victorious, laughing over my body as I quivered for air.

I walked a little further, my body felt tingly. I looked at my arms. It looked as if…they had red cytoplasm on them. I touched my stomach; they bounced off as soon as I touched it. Was this…was this a force field of some nature? I shook my arm slightly; the "cytoplasm" started evaporating. I shook my whole body and the rest disintegrated.

I sat down for a moment…thinking things over. Was _this_ the fantasy I had been looking for? No, it couldn't be. I was loosing my mind, and Yokuya was the first to witness it. I picked up the bullet that had been fired at me and then examined it. I shook my head a little and smirked at it. "You should have killed me," I said softly, and then slipped it into my jeans' pocket.

I walked the rest of the way home thinking, if my dad had seen me bloodied up like this, he would get worried again. I was going to sneak through the back and race into the bathroom before he had seen me. It was the only way to not get jumped again.

I got home, slipped through the back, looking both ways to see if anyone was coming, and then dashed to the bathroom as fast as I could without making any noise. I closed the bathroom and locked it tight, gasping for air. I took out the alcohol once more and wiped away the blood. I examined my face for any marks and noticed a black eye. "Damn," I said to myself. Oh well, I would just tell dad that it was from last time, two beatings in the same week…not good.

I flushed the toilet, even though I didn't use it, just so dad would think that I used the bathroom. I opened the door and I saw dad in the hallway with mom's painkillers.

"Oh I didn't even know you were home, Suzuki. Wow, that black eye is swelling up like a melon. What happened at school?" he asked quickly.

"Well…Yokuya and his gang faced expulsion, and, I got a hundred on my test but I accidentally lost it," I said innocently.

He looked at me for a moment, as if he didn't believe me. I hardly believed myself, after the whole Yokuya incident today I don't know what I believe and what I don't. "Suzuki, you really got a hundred? No lies?"

"Dad, I wouldn't lie to you. That's again honor, remember?"

Dad looked at me and smiled, then he gave me a slight hug and said, "I'm proud of you son, wait until mom finds out about this!" His excitement filled him up as he almost danced into mom's room. "Honey, guess what?" He whispered to mom. I smiled at myself and then went to go lay down.


	4. Two Stories End

Chapter 2: Two stories end

The next day at school, I didn't see Yokuya at all, but I wasn't complaining. Yesterday must have really happened, because I scared Yokuya so badly that he didn't even want to mess with me anymore. He went to the school right across the street of Meiya high. There were two schools in the same area because Meiya high was too populated, so they built a new school where other students could go.

My dad had called the school to ask if I really did get a hundred. Typical, dad was like that; he didn't believe it unless he saw it with his own eyes. So there was no real point in telling him what had happened with Yokuya and I. I hardly believed it. I don't even know what had happened. All I knew is that I was supposed to be dead, and that I should live everyday to the fullest now. That included…asking out Hori. A girl in my class who I liked…just didn't really want to admit that I did. Girls were a waste of time; but there was something different with Hori. She had that special smile she gave you when she didn't even know you. I liked that. But I wouldn't ask her out for a while, too stupid to do such a thing.

As I walked into the school people looked at me as if they were scared of me. They backed away as I got near them, or even walked next to them. What was with these people? Possibly someone saw what happened with Yokuya and I and spread it around the school and started rumors? God, tell me this _was_ not happening. My life was changing fast, why couldn't I be a regular student with regular grades and a regular girlfriend?

I proceeded up the stairs to my classroom and did the daily work we always did. My mind wasn't on task that day, too many things happening at once, I had almost died just the day before, and even more events were about to take place as I got home that day. The ambulance was outside my house that day. My heart started racing faster than it had already been walking home, expecting to get jumped by Yokuya again. I prayed to myself, mom, please be safe, keep with me, I can't take losing you. I walked to the ambulance. "What's going on here?" I had asked, almost stuttering.

"Are you Suzuki, Masato?" A tall dark Korean man had asked me.

I nodded slightly and replied, "Yes sir, what's going on here? Is my mom all right?"

"Son, your mom's fine. She's holding up well, she has a strong heart. It's your dad that we're worried about. Ten minutes right before you just got here, he had a stroke. We're going to take him to the hospital and see if he'll be okay. You just stay here with your mom okay? You'll be receiving a phone call soon," he replied.

My mouth dropped. If dad died, and then mom died from heart attack…then I would be homeless. And would be sent to an orphanage. God…please tell me everything was going to be all right, please, please. And with that they took dad and put him on the stretcher, I saw him smiling at me as he was lifted into the ambulance. Dad was trying to tell me that everything was going to be all right…but I knew it wasn't going to be, something in my gut told me it wasn't going to be.

I walked into my big baby blue painted house with tears. I walked into mom's room and set by her bedside. She slowly whispered to me "E-everything's…everything's going to be f-fine…" It was the first words I had heard from her in months. Her face was pale, and the tops of her eyelids were dark tan. I kissed her forehead, and in that moment, maybe from an ounce of shock, I was sleeping on top of my mom, like I used to when I was a child. She moved my head down to her stomach and gently rubbed my hair. Within moments, she was fast asleep too. Maybe it was our special connection, or maybe it was just my new powers coming into play, whatever it was, I know we both dreamed the same dream, and I know that we were controlling ourselves; unlike normal dreams, where you have no control whatsoever. It was a dream of déjà vu. This had already happened, but I remembered it as if it were yesterday. It was that one-day, when I was about nine years old, and we were driving that blue Hyundai we used to drive. We were driving to the park, and mom wasn't sick, she was still young and healthy. We pulled into the parking lot and then I ran to the playground. Mom and dad were laughing, they loved that they had such an energetic boy as me. I got onto the swings and I was laughing as hard as I could. This was one of my happiest moments of my life, but then…it was one of the worst as well, mom had a heart attack. And dad and I found ourselves in that hospital as we waited for the doctor to come and tell us what had happened.

Mom and I both woke up, we weren't in the Dream realm any longer, and we were now in Reality. "M-mom. Did you dream the same thing I did?" I whispered softly.

"What did you dream," her voice was becoming groggy and deep.

"I dreamed of that day…when we drove to the park, and the accident happened," I replied softly and innocently.

She nodded her head and grabbed my hand. I gave her a smile. "Is everything really going to be okay, mom?" She nodded once more.

"I-I know it will." Her eyes closed suddenly, and her head fell to her right shoulder.

"M-mom?" I looked at her for a moment and shook her to wake her up. Her body just went with gravity, shaking as I shook her. Her soul was now flowing into a stream, a stream where all other souls go once their bodies refuse to live any longer. "Mom!" I screamed. I shook her some more but she just shook with me. I put my head on her chest to see if she had a heartbeat. None…

My anger merged with my sadness, I was going crazy now, and now one was going to stop me. I kicked over her little black trash can that she had in her room and knocked down all the books. "FUCK!" I screamed as I kicked and thrashed. Life was not a mystery…I knew who I was, I knew what I wanted, but I couldn't grab it. It was too far…too far for my grasp.

My anger stopped, it was sadness' part. I cried, I wept, I fell to the floor in mental agony, and then…I reached for the phone. 911 I dialed.

"Emergency, how may I help you?" the happy woman answered.

"If this is an emergency then how can you be so damn happy?" I screamed.

"Calm down…calm down. What's your emergency?"

"My mother just died! Help! Someone please help…" I said moaning, my tears were taking my voice, making me sound groggy. I fell to the floor once more, and then I slammed the phone on the ground until it shattered into little plastic pieces. I grabbed my hair, as to pull it out but I just tugged at it instead and motioned back in forth as my tears exploded out of my eyes. Today, I was wearing all black, tomorrow; I'd be wearing red. Black is the color of sorrow; red is the color of grief. If I lasted tomorrow, and dad wasn't alive, then I was to run away, far far away until I couldn't ever look back. I didn't want to live in an orphanage; I just wanted to be with my parents in the afterlife.

Another ambulance came to my house; I stopped pulling my hair and answered the door.

"We're very sorry about your mother," said a short and skinny Japanese man.

"I bet you are," I replied softly. "There she is," I pointed my arm sarcastically to the bedroom; my face had a sarcastic look as well. I wiped my tears as two other men behind the first walked into my house with him. The two behind him both had an end of a stretcher. They put my mother on it and lifted it into the ambulance. Both of my parents were put into ambulance today, was this really the ending of my beginning?

That night while lying in my room I couldn't get this madness that was happening to me out of my head. It didn't make sense why it had to be me. There were thousands of Japanese boys out there, how come it was I this time?

I was lying in my mom's bed. I wrapped her blanket around me really tight, and I soaked in her scent coming from it. My nostrils quivered as the smell rose into my nose and my brain told me what I smelt…my mother. Her scent was that of a hard workingwoman who stood in front of the stove a lot to fix us meals. I could smell the oil that she had used, and the cooking beans and steak. Mixed with fried rice and onions, how much did I miss that cooking? How badly did I yearn for it? I can't tell you…no words could describe the bond I had with my mother. She was the one who brought me onto this earth, she's the one who gave me happiness from day to day and kept fear from reaching me.

Next, I was devouring her pillow with my nose. I could smell the shampoo that she had used to wash her hair, and her conditioner. I wanted her back! I needed her.

All of a sudden…I heard a noise outside of her window. Her window was about five feet from her bed. If you were lying on the bed and looked straight you could see out into the darkness. Something was moving…lurking. I pulled the blanket closer to me, like a boy would do. Then, I was looking directly at this creature, it was staring me in the eyes, like a beast about to devour its prey. I stared at it for a while, and for a while, it didn't make any movement, and then into the black abyss it ran off into the starry night. I shook a little, scared of this image. My mind wasn't working; it couldn't be working.

An influence of fear made me run outside and track this thing. At this point, I didn't care about life or death, it could devour me alive and I'd be satisfied, because then…I'd be home, with mom, in the kitchen smelling that food cook as my stomach growled and moaned for food. I saw it running in the road. This creature, this thing, had four legs. It was dark black with what appeared to be red wings forming out of its back. It appeared to be a panther, but more vicious and furious then a panther, its eyes were full of hate, and I could see the rage burning for blood, for death.

I followed it out into the open road. For a minute, I was foolish, as stubborn as a kid, and didn't know anything about life. I didn't know why I was here in the first place, if there was nothing left for me to do, then there was no point in being here. I had to stop because I was running out of breath. I hadn't heard it at the time, but as I turned around, looking back at my house, a semi was two inches from me. And then…it happened. SLAM. I was under the semi; my frail body was broken and shaking. The last set of tires ran me further into the ground. After the semi had passed I tried to move, but after each muscle tried, my quivering body died out. My breath stopped, no more heartbeat, no more life. My agony had been put down, like a limp dog in the rain being injected his final poison, and finally I died. This is what I wanted, was it not? This is how I wanted it to end, and that is how I got it.


	5. Training With the Red Armored Samurai

Chapter 3: Training with the red armored samurai

I found myself hopelessly in the dark. Where was I? Wasn't I dead? My body was no longer broken and split open, as it had been when I got hit. I heard screaming, and it was getting louder. I heard moans and cries of sorrow, screams for a rescue. What was this place, it had no smell, no taste, no touch, no sight, nothing, my only sense working was my hearing. I heard perfectly fine, I heard people screaming for mercy. What kind of hell was this? No, it wasn't heaven, certainly not. If anything I would call it Oblivion. And then I thought…Oblivion, was there such a thing?

I was floating, not walking, nor in air. There _was_ no air here, I couldn't breathe. My lungs weren't working, but I wasn't suffering for air. No, in this place, I didn't need it. The only sense I could use was my hearing, and it led me to the screams. Traveling was like swimming, I had to push my way through the darkness, kick my feet, as if I were in a big pool of blackness, or more sensible, the imploding darkness of the abyss.

I moved my way into what seemed to be a void of some sort. I couldn't see it of course, but it sounded like a big gust of wind, only, it lasted longer, and it sounded more powerful then a mere gust. Before I knew it, I was spiraling down, falling, or spinning, or whatever you would want to call it. I was shot out of the typhoon and landed hard on what seemed like ground. I stood up suddenly, my senses were working again, and the void was nowhere in sight.

I was in a big chamber. The walls were decorated with red curtains running down from the ceiling. A bunch of creatures were lined up down the middle and I was at the entrance of the chamber, only it was locked. The dust was clogging my lungs, and the stench that the chamber gave was that of dead rats. At the very front of the chamber was a throne; there on the throne was a big blue creature. He had spiky shoulders and he was dressed in maroon colored silk. He had dark green eyes and long, thick, crusty black claws. He was before a stack of papers and at the very front of the line a human man walked up to him. The beast on the throne waved his hand and blood drenched the paper before him. The man took the paper into his hands and held it close to his chest, after that he vanished; the next person in the line moved forward, the same process happened.

I got at the end of the line. I wasn't really sure what I was waiting for but I knew I was supposed to be in the line. I heard the rushing noise that I had heard before I had gotten in the chamber. It was coming from behind me, and I turned around. Two more creatures fell to the ground out of the tunnel, and then they looked around as I had done. They were probably as confused as I was. What if everyone in this room was confused?

The line was going fast now, people moved up at least every twenty seconds. I was now third in line, and still I had no answer as to what was going on. Second in line now, the bulky tan creature in front of me finally vanished and now I was standing before the blue creature on the throne. For a minute the creature stared at me, and then put up a thinking face.

"Hmm…what to do with you, young one?" he said slowly. His voice was the deepest voice I had ever heard. His voice came out slow and strong, and he almost sounded tired.

"W-where exactly am I?" I had asked stupidly.

He laughed out loud, his voice shaking the chamber. "You're telling me you don't know where this is? You of all people?"

"Umm…no, I don't," I mumbled.

Laughter.

"Tell me boy, do you know who you are? Do you know what your role in the realms are?"

"The realms?"

"Oh my god, boy. Before I can pick a realm for you, you have to learn where your destiny comes," he said shaking his head slightly. "Tell me, have you ever put up a…as you humans would call it, a red force field?"

"Umm…yes, once," I replied, kind of confused.

He eyed me for a minute, and then took out a pen and wrote down something on a notebook that he had under his desk. He then put both the pen and the notebook back where he got them.

"Very well then," he replied as he waved his hand over a piece of paper. Letters inscribed in blood marked the paper. The only thing was, I couldn't read the language. "Take the paper, and hold it to your chest."

I did as he said and I had vanished. I fell once more to the ground. But instead of the chamber I was now in a field with a great amount of farmers hoeing their yards. This looked like the 1600's of Kyoto, Japan. But how was this possible? But that was stupid questioning…none of this was possible, this shouldn't surprise me.

I stood up, dusting off the dirt that had gotten on my black shirt and blue jeans and then looked around the area. The people working hadn't noticed me one bit, they were occupied with their work. The stench of sweat remained in the air and it was choking me as if an invisible hand grabbed me by the neck and squeezed until no air passed through my lungs at all. Why did this blue devil send me here? What was I to learn here of all places?

I made my way through the tall weeds that obviously hadn't been cut down in weeks. There was a shrine up ahead; possibly they could give me the answers I needed. When I got there I slid the white bamboo door to the right and slowly entered. Monks were singing hymns, incense slowly burned somewhere, and a samurai was in the center of the room watching the monks sing. This warrior wore red armor and had two swords tied to his left waist. His black hair was put in a ponytail and his head was bowed as he prayed. I closed the door behind me and walked a little further, but didn't dare interrupt.

After about five minutes the samurai was done with his prayer. His eyes moved towards me and his face lit up. He recognized me from somewhere, and his face was slightly familiar as well. I opened my mouth for a moment as to say something, but then closed it shut. He gave me a quick smile and then said aloud, "You must me Suzuki. Welcome. It's an honor to meet you after all this time." He stood up and bowed to me and I bowed back, but how did he know me?

I tried to say something else but he used a hand gesture to silence me. "I know you're confused. Don't worry; I'm from your time period. See, when one dies, he is sort of reincarnated. Ragnuk, which you met a short while ago, judges him and his soul goes to a certain place, any place that best suits him. There, he will live eternally, happily forever. But in your case, that's not the outcome," he explained happily.

I went to ask a question but once more he silenced me. "You might not understand yet what you can do, or what your purpose is, but you'll soon find out. Don't ask any questions, everything will be explained to you when the time is right. You will go through a bunch of teachers to get you ready for your…well, you'll see. Anyway, I'll be you first teacher. I will teach you combat; you'll need this just in case your powers won't serve you good."

"I know you told me not ask any questions…but I can't help to ask, will I ever be in my old world, the real one?"

"Who's to say the one you're standing on right now isn't real? Everything is _real_, even if it may not be what you're used to. But to answer your question, yes, you will. That's mainly where you'll be for now on. But for right now, you have to train."

I nodded my head slightly. I didn't understand most of what was going on but I had to trust this man, it was the only way I was going to survive whatever was in store for me.

"We'll start training tomorrow, for right now you need to rest, it's getting late, even for the farmers. Follow me," he said as he opened the white bamboo door that was the entrance to the shrine. He held it open for me and I followed him out. What was weird about all of this was when I had first got here it was broad daylight outside, and now, it was night.

The next morning I had awoken in a small Japanese house of the 1600's. I was sleeping on a bamboo mat on the floor, but unlike my floor at home this floor was made out of bamboo, and wasn't that supportive, through the night I was scared I was going to fall through, but it was my fault for underestimating the Japanese mind of the 1600's. Obviously they weren't stupid, just not modern like we were.

I woke up; the man from last night wasn't even awake yet. There were no clocks around like there were back at home, so I wasn't sure what time it really was, but I was guessing around 8 AM. What did men of these days eat in the morning? I was curious. And where exactly did they keep the food? There was no electricity, so you couldn't store food in a refrigerator. At this point, I really wish I had paid more attention during history class.

I sat down on the floor for what seemed like hours, but it was probably only _half_ an hour. Finally the man awoke. He walked into the room where I was sleeping at in his red armor and his swords at his side. He held one bamboo sword in his left hand and he tossed it to me. "Here's a gift. This is what you will be training with so use it well."

I caught it and examined it carefully. It was the finest bamboo I had ever seen. The sword was thick and strong, but light enough to swing around without that much effort. It was a great sword for training, but I hoped I didn't actually have to fight with it because it wouldn't do much damage, well…at least not to a decent fighter.

"Don't worry, you won't use that during combat, once you learn well enough with that then I'll make you a real sword."

It's like he read my mind. But if he did, then it wouldn't surprise me, nothing that had happened so far really made any sense, so it didn't make it _that_ strange if he _could_ read my mind.

He led me out into the same fields that I had first seen when I arrived there. It was beautiful despite the hardworking farmers. They made the air hard to breathe in, considering they smelt like a thousand sweaty pigs.

"You'll get used to the smell," he said giving me a little wink.

I guess by my face expression he could tell that I thought it had stunk.

"Now, we'll begin with the basics. First off is how to hold your sword. You _are_ right handed aren't you?"

I nodded slightly.

"Good. Put your sword in your left hand." I did as he said. "Now, put your right hand below your left hand," he said as he did the same. He then spread his legs slightly and bent his knees so that his legs curved. He held the sword straight upward right in front of his face. "This is called the horse stance. I want you to do everything I do as I do it." So, I spread my legs, bent my knees, and held my sword straight upward in front of my face. He then lifted his sword above his left shoulder and moved his left foot forward as he swung his sword downward. I did all this the same time he did.

"Great. Now I want you to do that same technique for an hour straight. I'll sit down and tell you if you're doing anything wrong."

My mouth dropped and I stared at him as if he were crazy. An hour straight while he gets to sit down and criticize me! That wasn't training, that was exhausting.

He shook his head slightly. "You young ones really don't have respect do you?"

"I-I'm sorry," I replied dumbfounded. Now I really did believe he could read my mind.

"Don't be. I'm just messing with you. If someone told me to do that for an hour I'd look at him as if he were a bastard," he said chuckling slightly. "Anyway, come on, I really I don't feel like being out here all day, it gets hot after a while, especially with this heavy of armor."

I nodded my head and began my training. Every once in a while I would here "no, not like that, you're not swinging it hard enough" or "no, no, no, put some speed into it" or even "your losing your balance, stand up straight and get a grip."

After an hour of exhausting training he sat up and said to me "I've trained thirty-five students and none of them did as good as you did the first time. Good work," he said as he messed up my hair.

And so we trained eight hard months. My body was bruised and broken, he told me that we would both rest for two weeks and after that I would begin my first real mission. But for now…I was to sleep…


End file.
